Elijah Hall
Elijah Hall, (also known as The Tainted Reality or just The Aeon) was a man born on the world of Altagor, considered a hero to many in life. In death, his heroic deeds combined with his great sins caused him to be reborn as a powerful lord among Aeons, and he somehow managed to keep his memories and personality. With the help of many lesser aeons, he tried twice to destroy the universe, once in 5400 A.C., and again in 6600 A.C. after he was released from his prison on the world of Lastlock. These are referred to as the First and Second Aeon Wars. After being reunited with his sister, Mary, during the Battle of Sigil, he achieved harmony in death and has since performed his proper duties as an Aeon. Background Elijah Hall was born in the village of Relano on the edge of the great desert in Altagor in 5314 A.C. His parents were fisherman, who worked all day and raised him and his sister Mary all night. Not much more than a year after Mary's birth, both of their parents were killed in a raid by the pirates of Brittlebones Island. As a result, Elijah raised Mary by himself while still just a kid. Mary loved music, so Elijah learned to sing and play, even though he wasn't very good at first, and he sung her the Old Willow Lullaby every night. In 5330 A.C., on a trip to the market to buy a green dress for Mary that he had been saving for all summer, Mary was killed by Variastryx with the use of void magic. Mary's death broke Elijah, and he became an adventuring hero of sorts, taking the color of her dress as the signature color of his armor. Soon he was known throughout Altagor as the Verdant Juggernaut. He always acted for the greater good, but sometimes took vicious actions or aided vile people when it suited his purposes, and many a time he let his temper get the better of him, with numerous casualties. At some point he asked the people of Time City to help him restore his sister to life, but an accident damaged the time stream and all but erased her from the past, leaving her unrestorable through any use of time travel. In anger, the Juggernaut smashed their reactor, causing the Great Mistake and trapping thousands of people in a static time field. At some point, he struck a deal with the Necronomist, and the two briefly became allies and unlikely friends. The Necronomist helped Elijah to slaughter the pirates of Brittlebones Island and raise them in torturous unlife, as punishment for taking the lives of Elijah's parents. In return, the Juggernaut made use of the Song of Eternal Slumber to paralyze the Mantis God, which had been sent by the gods to eliminate the Necronomist. Throughout his career, he waged a long rivalry with Variastryx, and over the course of this rivalry, managed to destroy three of the dry lich's five canopic jars, which preserved his life essence. The Juggernaut eventually gained the ability to traverse the planes, and became known as a hero throughout the universe. He even gained the title of "The Hero of Sigil" after he slew the Hungerer of Five Nights, and had a statue built in his honor in Sigil. When Elijah died of natural causes, so exceptional was his life and so careful the balance of good, evil, law, and chaos inside of him that he was instantly reborn as a lord among aeons, with many lesser aeons already reporting to his wishes. As an aeon, his eyes were opened to see the wickedness of the universe, and how irreversible the sins that had ruined his life and that of his cherished sister, and so he set about to destroy the universe so that he could build a new one void of evil in its place. This began the First Aeon War. His presence was unknown for so long that by the time a coherent resistance was mounted against him, he had already collected most of the Sigil Keys, and most thought that there was little hope of stopping him from completing the set and making his way to Sigil. In 5600 A.C., he arrived on the world of Lastlock and destroyed the entire elven nation of Tol'Daril within an hour of his arrival when they refused to tell him the location of the Keystone of Sigil. He was then met by Burntmeat the Giant, Lulu Jingleheimer, and Lord Talon Anterawyn, who, with the aid of the illithids, the gnomes of Cruor, and the mages of the Isle of Shining Glass, and using the Annulus, managed to craft a prison for him and trap Elijah, who was by then known as the Tainted Reality. The Aeon remained in this prison for a thousand years, until he was released by the efforts of Jackson Aberdeen, the mortal incarnation of the Annulus, who was at the time being manipulated by Calax. Upon release, he found that he was still trapped on the world of Lastlock, and that the orbs which granted him his powers of creation and destruction had been stolen. He began to call his aeon brethren back to his side to help search for these orbs and the keystone, and help him to escape the world. By the end of the year, his Orb of Creation was being used as an engine in J.J. Jingleheimer's Airship. When the shield around the orb was removed by an unfortunate wish, the Aeon found the artifact and reclaimed it. He then called or created three of his greatest servants during the war, known collectively as the Tane. After one of these, the Sard, leveled the Isle of Shining Glass, he reclaimed his orb of destruction and, with the full suite of his powers, kidnapped mages from the Isle and engineers from Cruor and had them build him a fortress, which eventually became known as Aeon Falls. When Veracion bonded with the Thasfyr, another of the Tane, and brought it to the surface of Tyrador, he appeared and destroyed the castle of Tyrador, killing the High Priest of Fharlagn in the process. Eventually, the Heroes of Lastlock attempted to create a trap for him at Madcap Point, and to foil it, he transported his fortress over the trap, took the Keystone, and used the opalescent bridge he had constructed to leave Lastlock and return to Altagor. Learning from his long imprisonment on Lastlock, he traveled to the heart of the astral plane and damaged it, causing universe wide astral chaos that inhibited all planar travel, except that using physical or unconventional routes. He then made his way to Sigil to destroy the universe. When Clarisse broadcast a plea for help to the universe using the Star Tower, the Aeon created the Shadow Aeon, as a precaution, to hunt the Heroes of Lastlock and stop them from stopping him. On the way into Sigil, he did battle with Pelor, leaving the latter mortally wounded as he approached the city with his army of aeons. On arriving in the city of doors, he created a great veil of sensory deprivation, because he couldn't bear to watch the universe as he killed everyone it. Under this veil, he did battle with Calax (masquarading as the Lady of Pain) and Badabil, until the veil was broken by the efforts of Tophlyn Notbeifong and Niok. With the veil broken, Clarisse LeMont used his mastery of truespeech and his knowledge of the secret to extract the soul of Mary Hall from the Void Fisher's lantern, resurrecting her after thousands of years. With the help of Mary, the heroes of Lastlock were able to talk Elijah down, and he found inner harmony and balance, bonding fully with the universe to do his job as an aeon. In 7051 A.C., the aeon appeared as the Golden Night fought with Obligatum VII to prevent the release of Pandorym. He summoned a keketar, a powerful protean, to even the balance and fight the inevitable, and gave Maximillian Renner a few words of advice on miracles which helped give him the conviction to fight using his own power instead of that which Pandorym had granted him. Abilities In life, Elijah Hall was both a capable warrior and an exceptional musician. At some point, he mastered the Song of Eternal Slumber and several other powerful pieces of music, which he had at his disposal. As an aeon, he was gifted with godlike power that appeared nearly limitless, channeled through his orbs of destruction and creation. With this, he proved to be able to do near anything he desired, up to and including ignoring the laws of the universe which even the gods are bound by. He also appeared to be indestructible, except by means of the Reality Disintegrator. Quotes "A thousand apologies mean nothing in the face of one who has lost the power to rebuild." -The Tainted Reality "I look around at the world and I see wickedness everywhere. Good people die for no reason, and evil ones achieve power and success for their wicked deeds. I will build a universe where evil is inherently punished, where the good are rewarded, a bright universe where darkness cannot exist. But for that to happen, first, all the lights around this universe have to go out." -The Tainted Reality Relations With Other Characters Mary Hall: '''Mary was Elijah's sister, and the most important person in his life, because he had to raise her himself. He learned the Old Willow Lullaby to help her sleep, and her death at the hands of Variastryx was the ultimate inspiration for his quest to destroy reality. He tried once to bring her back by the use of time travel, but in doing so blocked her from being affected by chronomancy. He believed her to be gone forever until she was returned to life through Clarisse LeMont's focused use of the Secret, and she was the only one who could convince him to stop. Reuniting with her granted Elijah the harmony he needed to be a proper lord of aeons. '''The Necronomist: '''In life, the Necronomist and the Verdant Juggernaut were unlikely friends, for a time. The Juggernaut used the Song of Eternal Slumber to save the Necronomist from the Mantis God, and the Necronomist helped the Juggernaut to kill and then raise and torture the pirates who killed Elijah's parents. Years later, the Necronomist still described the two as friends, though he appears to have never learned Elijah's real name. '''The Heroes of Lastlock: While on Lastlock, the Tainted Reality scarcely acknowledged the Heroes. Though they repeatedly appeared fighting his servants, he seemed unaware of their efforts until they tried to trap him using the Keystone of Sigil. During the fight that ensued, he shared words with them briefly, and revealed recognizing them. He next became aware of them when Clarisse used the Star Tower to send a call for help to the universe. This solidified his view of them as enemies, after which point he sent the Shadow Aeon to destroy them. During the Battle of Sigil, he finally held a full conversation with the Heroes, and they, along with his sister, convinced him the universe was worth preserving. Before leaving, he expressed some level of gratitude towards the Heroes. Trivia